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Light curve inversion is a standard method to determine shapes, rotation periods and spin axis orientations of asteroids. This method can be extended to determine the size, albedo, thermal inertia and surface roughness parameters of an asteroid by including observations in thermal infrared. A solution of the Heat Conduction Equation (HCE) is necessary to model infrared flux from the asteroid. We analyse the accuracy requirements of the extended method for numerical solution of the HCE. We show that current implementation leads to errors in flux that are substantial. We recommend changes in the current implementation of the HCE solving approach to address the accuracy issues. We discuss uniqueness and stability of the solutions produced by the extended method as well as the accuracy of the determined parameters and their stability. Shapes of asteroids are produced and their physical attributes are determined based on light curve and infrared data.

This thesis deals with the study of the eclipsing binaries with inclination changes, caused by orbital precession due to third body in the system. Methods of semiauthomatic detection of the inclination changing eclipsing binaries among huge lightcurves databases have been developed. These methods have been applied to the ASAS-3 and OGLE III LMC databases. As a result, 39 new systems suspected of orbital precession have been found and 33 of them are situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud, with only one previously studied system. Increasing the number of known multiple systems especially those located outside Milky Way allows to study inter-galactic differences in star formation. In this work, we bring detailed study of ten new systems and restrictions on the third body parameters are presented. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Cette thèse propose une nouvelle théorie de l’effet Blazhko. Elle apporte également une justification théorique à certaines observations encore inexpliquées : la décroissance des harmoniques de la courbe de lumière ; l’asymétrie des enveloppes et des lobes ainsi que la variation des temps de montée et de descente dans le cas de l’effet Blazhko ; la synchronisation des couches et l’existence des trois types d’étoiles RR Lyrae : RRab, RRc et RRd. La première partie présente une étude extensive d’une étoile RR Lyrae avec effet Blazhko : S Arae. Nous débutons par une définition rigoureuse de l’analyse harmonique des courbes de lumière. Cette démarche, encore jamais entreprise en astéroséismologie, permet une meilleure interprétation des habituels résultats des études photométriques. Nous poursuivons avec une présentation du programme d’analyse fréquentielle que nous avons développé : PDM13. Nous établissons ensuite le spectre fréquentiel de la courbe de lumière de S Arae et, à la présentation des résultats de cette étude, nous apportons une démonstration mathématique à deux observations communément effectuées : la décroissance des harmoniques et l’asymétrie de modulation. Dans la deuxième partie, après un rappel des mécanismes d’oscillation, nous présentons une nouvelle modélisation discrète, et non linéaire, des équations de pulsations. Celle-ci nous permettra d’expliquer les phénomènes de synchronisation, mais surtout, conduira à une nouvelle théorie du phénomène Blazhko fondée sur l’existence de solitons, que nous étayerons par des premiers résultats, obtenus grâce à l’utilisation d’un nouvel outil : la transformée en ondelettes / In this thesis we develop a new theory of the Blazhko effect. We also provide a theoretical justification to the following commonly observed facts: the light curve harmonics decrease; the asymetry of envelopes and sidelobes ; the synchronization of layers and the mode selection. The first part of this thesis is dedicated to the extensive study of a RR Lyrae star presenting the Blazhko effect: S Arae. Firstly, a rigorous definition of harmonic analysis applied to light curves is given. This work, which has never been undertaken in the asteroseismology field, up to now, allows a better interpretation of the usual results of photometric studies. We carry on with the presentation of a software that we have developed, dedicated to frequency analysis: PDM13. After that, we perform the usual analysis of the frequency spectrum of the light curve, which we complete we two rigorous demonstrations of commonly observed facts: the harmonics decrease and the asymmetry induced by modulation. We complete it with a study of the parameters which vary during a Blazhko cycle, on which we will capitalize to understand this modulation effect. The second part begins with a reminder of the basic perturbed and linearized equations of stellar pulsation together with the oscillation mechanisms. We pursue this presentation with a non linear and discrete formalism that we have developed for these equations. This formalism will allow us to underline the importance of synchronization in those stars, but, most of all, it will lead us to a new theory of the Blazhko effect, based on solitons, which will be supported by a new results obtained with the wavelet transform method

<p dir="ltr">Tracking and characterizing the space debris population in Earth orbit is necessary to ensure that space can continue to be used safely. However, because space objects are affected by non-conservative forces like drag and solar radiation pressure, predicting the long-term evolution of their orbits is impossible without knowledge of their attitude profiles. Such knowledge may be unavailable for inactive satellites or objects of which the observer is not the owner or operator. In many cases, attitude cannot be measured directly because resolved images of space objects are unavailable due to the distance between the object and the observer, and the effects of atmospheric seeing. However, the total brightness of objects can still be measured. A set of brightness measurements over time is referred to as a "light curve.'' An object's observed brightness is influenced by its attitude and other factors such as its orbit, shape, and reflective properties. If some of these other factors are known, attitude information may be extracted from a light curve. Existing methods of solving this attitude inversion problem either require a good initial guess for an object's rotational states or do not provide a full state estimate. The work in this thesis avoids both problems and provides a full state estimate without requiring an initial state guess.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">The attitude estimation process assumes that the observation geometry and the observed object's shape, reflection properties, and inertia tensor are known. In this thesis, an initial method of searching for attitudes that could correspond to each measurement using the viewing sphere is described. These possible attitudes or "pseudo-measurements'' are then used to initialize a probability hypothesis density filter that is theoretically capable of representing the multi-modal nature of the attitude estimate using a Gaussian mixture model. However, the probability hypothesis density filter is found to often diverge from the truth because it is necessary to merge and prune components of the Gaussian mixture model to avoid computational intractability. In its place, a particle swarm optimizer method for performing an attitude inversion has been developed. This method uses analytic attitude solutions to quickly propagate a large number of attitude time histories simultaneously. The particle swarm optimizer method is validated using simulated light curves for several objects. A preliminary attempt is made to estimate the attitude of an object using real light curve measurements.</p>

The main objective of this thesis is the development of a nonparametric sequential estimation technique for the off-pulse interval(s) of a source function originating from a pulsar. It is important to identify the off-pulse interval of each pulsar accurately, since the properties of the off-pulse emissions are further researched by astrophysicists in an attempt to detect potential emissions from the associated pulsar wind nebula (PWN). The identification technique currently used in the literature is subjective in nature, since it is based on the visual inspection of the histogram estimate of the pulsar light curve. The developed nonparametric estimation technique is not only objective in nature, but also accurate in the estimation of the off-pulse interval of a pulsar, as evident from the simulation study and the application of the developed technique to observed pulsar data. The first two chapters of this thesis are devoted to a literature study that provides background information on the pulsar environment and -ray astronomy, together with an explanation of the on-pulse and off-pulse interval of a pulsar and the importance thereof for the present study. This is followed by a discussion on some fundamental circular statistical ideas, as well as an overview of kernel density estimation techniques. These two statistical topics are then united in order to illustrate kernel density estimation techniques applied to circular data, since this concept is the starting point of the developed nonparametric sequential estimation technique. Once the basic theoretical background of the pulsar environment and circular kernel density estimation has been established, the new sequential off-pulse interval estimator is formulated. The estimation technique will be referred to as `SOPIE'. A number of tuning parameters form part of SOPIE, and therefore the performed simulation study not only serves as an evaluation of the performance of SOPIE, but also as a mechanism to establish which tuning parameter configurations consistently perform better than some other configurations. In conclusion, the optimal parameter configurations are utilised in the application of SOPIE to pulsar data. For several pulsars, the sequential off-pulse interval estimators are compared to the off-pulse intervals published in research papers, which were identified with the subjective \eye-ball" technique. It is found that the sequential off-pulse interval estimators are closely related to the off-pulse intervals identified with subjective visual inspection, with the benefit that the estimated intervals are objectively obtained with a nonparametric estimation technique. / PhD (Statistics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The launch of the Large Area Telescope (LAT), on board the Fermi spacecraft, has led to an astounding increase in the number of known y-ray pulsars. This wealth of new data has generated renewed interest in the field of pulsar astrophysics, with many of the established geometric models for y-ray emission coming under fresh scrutiny. In this work the outer gap (OG) and two-pole caustic (TPC) geometric -ray models are employed alongside a simple empirical radio model to obtain best-fit light curves by eye for six single-peak Fermi LAT pulsars first reported by Weltevrede et al. (2010). These best-fit solutions aim to reproduce both the shapes of the radio and y-ray light curves, and the radio-to- phase lag. A parameter study of the geometric models is also conducted, and the increased qualitative understanding of these models thus gained is then employed to obtain the best fits possible. The combination of radio and -ray models is found to be remarkably powerful in constraining the values of the geometric parameters of the individual pulsars: the inclination and observer angles. Generally the constraints implied by the radio model act perpendicularly to those implied by the y-ray models, thus yielding smaller solution contours. The constraints on the geometric parameters obtained for the six Fermi LAT pulsars in question agree quite well with those obtained by Weltevrede et al. (2010). This agreement is remarkable considering that the approach employed in this study is independent from the one employed by Weltevrede et al. (2010). The errors obtained in this study on the values of the inclination angle for each pulsar are generally smaller than those obtained by Weltevrede et al. (2010). As a secondary result, the value of the flux correction factor, which is a measure of how well the observed y-ray energy flux of the pulsar correlates with the overall y-ray energy flux, is constrained for each pulsar. / MSc (Space Physics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The main objective of this thesis is the development of a nonparametric sequential estimation technique for the off-pulse interval(s) of a source function originating from a pulsar. It is important to identify the off-pulse interval of each pulsar accurately, since the properties of the off-pulse emissions are further researched by astrophysicists in an attempt to detect potential emissions from the associated pulsar wind nebula (PWN). The identification technique currently used in the literature is subjective in nature, since it is based on the visual inspection of the histogram estimate of the pulsar light curve. The developed nonparametric estimation technique is not only objective in nature, but also accurate in the estimation of the off-pulse interval of a pulsar, as evident from the simulation study and the application of the developed technique to observed pulsar data. The first two chapters of this thesis are devoted to a literature study that provides background information on the pulsar environment and -ray astronomy, together with an explanation of the on-pulse and off-pulse interval of a pulsar and the importance thereof for the present study. This is followed by a discussion on some fundamental circular statistical ideas, as well as an overview of kernel density estimation techniques. These two statistical topics are then united in order to illustrate kernel density estimation techniques applied to circular data, since this concept is the starting point of the developed nonparametric sequential estimation technique. Once the basic theoretical background of the pulsar environment and circular kernel density estimation has been established, the new sequential off-pulse interval estimator is formulated. The estimation technique will be referred to as `SOPIE'. A number of tuning parameters form part of SOPIE, and therefore the performed simulation study not only serves as an evaluation of the performance of SOPIE, but also as a mechanism to establish which tuning parameter configurations consistently perform better than some other configurations. In conclusion, the optimal parameter configurations are utilised in the application of SOPIE to pulsar data. For several pulsars, the sequential off-pulse interval estimators are compared to the off-pulse intervals published in research papers, which were identified with the subjective \eye-ball" technique. It is found that the sequential off-pulse interval estimators are closely related to the off-pulse intervals identified with subjective visual inspection, with the benefit that the estimated intervals are objectively obtained with a nonparametric estimation technique. / PhD (Statistics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The launch of the Large Area Telescope (LAT), on board the Fermi spacecraft, has led to an astounding increase in the number of known y-ray pulsars. This wealth of new data has generated renewed interest in the field of pulsar astrophysics, with many of the established geometric models for y-ray emission coming under fresh scrutiny. In this work the outer gap (OG) and two-pole caustic (TPC) geometric -ray models are employed alongside a simple empirical radio model to obtain best-fit light curves by eye for six single-peak Fermi LAT pulsars first reported by Weltevrede et al. (2010). These best-fit solutions aim to reproduce both the shapes of the radio and y-ray light curves, and the radio-to- phase lag. A parameter study of the geometric models is also conducted, and the increased qualitative understanding of these models thus gained is then employed to obtain the best fits possible. The combination of radio and -ray models is found to be remarkably powerful in constraining the values of the geometric parameters of the individual pulsars: the inclination and observer angles. Generally the constraints implied by the radio model act perpendicularly to those implied by the y-ray models, thus yielding smaller solution contours. The constraints on the geometric parameters obtained for the six Fermi LAT pulsars in question agree quite well with those obtained by Weltevrede et al. (2010). This agreement is remarkable considering that the approach employed in this study is independent from the one employed by Weltevrede et al. (2010). The errors obtained in this study on the values of the inclination angle for each pulsar are generally smaller than those obtained by Weltevrede et al. (2010). As a secondary result, the value of the flux correction factor, which is a measure of how well the observed y-ray energy flux of the pulsar correlates with the overall y-ray energy flux, is constrained for each pulsar. / MSc (Space Physics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This MSc report discusses the attributes of W Ursae Majoris (W UMa) stars and an investigation into the Minimum Entropy (ME) method, a digital technique applied to the determination of their periods of variability. A Python code programme was written to apply the ME method to photometric data collected on W UMa stars by the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS). Starting with the orbital period of the binaries estimated by ASAS, this programme systematically searches around this period for the period which corresponds to the lowest value of entropy. Low entropy here means low scatter (or spread) of data across the phase-magnitude plane. The ME method divides the light curve plot area into a number of elements of the investigators choosing. When a particular orbital period is applied to this photometric data, the resulting distribution of this data in the light curve plane corresponds to a speci c number of data points in each element into which this plane has been divided. This data spread is measured and calculated in terms of entropy and the lowest value of entropy corresponds to the lowest spread of data across the light curve plane. This should correspond to the best light curve shape available from the data and therefore the most accurate orbital period available. Subsequent to the testing of this Python code on perfect sine waves, it was applied, and its results compared, to the 62 ASAS eclipsing binary stars which were investigated by Deb and Singh (2011). The method was then applied to selected stars from the ASAS data base. / School of Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Astronomy)